Prominent Journalist, Activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett Dies
by: Dr. Clint Wilson
Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Miss. and by age 14 her parents had died leaving her to care for her brothers and sisters. Always an avid writer, she used the pen name "Iola" from her days as a contributor to Fisk University's student newspaper. At age 27 she acquired one-third interest in a Black weekly newspaper in Memphis, Tenn., the Free Speech. After three young Black grocery store owners were lynched in Memphis in 1892, Wells wrote that the deed had been motivated by white food store competitors. A mob subsequently raided her newspaper office, destroyed it and threatened her life. She escaped to New York and began writing for T. Thomas Fortune's New York Age.
Fortune said of her, "She has become famous as one of the few of our women who can handle a goose-quill with diamond point, as easily as any man in newspaper work. If Iola were a man, she would be a humming independent in politics. She has plenty of nerve and is as sharp as a steel trap." Wells eventually moved to Chicago and married Ferdinand Barnett, a Black newspaper publisher there. She continued her tireless crusade for civil and women's rights until her sudden death, which was, reported by the Chicago Defender in its March 28, 1931 edition.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Noted Club Woman, Dies Suddenly
Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, internationally known for two generations for her agitations and leadership of women and public thought, died Tuesday, March 24, at Dailey's hospital, 37th Pl. and Michigan Ave. She had lived here a third of a century. Mrs. Barnett was ill only two days. Her indefatigable labors were kept up to within a few hours of her death.
Native of Mississippi Mrs. Barnett was a native of Mississippi. She was born at Holly Springs, Marshall county, and came of poor parents. Her schooling was obtained in the elementary department of Rust college, noted center of learning. At the age of 14, on account of the death of her parents she quit school and went to Memphis to live with relatives. She became a country school teacher.
Mrs. Barnett gained the attention first of her city, and then of the entire country, by her fiery articles in the Memphis Free Speech, of which she was part owner. She denounced irregularities in the school system and kept up a constant war against lynching. A mob stopped her by destroying her printing shop. She fled for her life.
In New York she joined the New York Age staff, then edited by T. Thomas Fortune. Soon she was in England agitating against lynchings in the United States.
Worked with Douglass Mrs. Barnett came to Chicago in 1893 and found a friend in Frederick Douglass, who had charge of the Haitian building. She made an attack on the World's fair because the Race had no part in it. Following the close of the fair she became editor of the Conservator, at that time a leading paper of the West, dividing honors with Cyrus Field Adams' Appeal. In 1893 she organized in Chicago the first Colored Women's club.
She was a prominent figure in the National Association of Colored Women and worked for and among women with remarkable fidelity.
In 1895 she organized an orchestra in Chicago. In 1896 she got up a kindergarten. She took the first 100-voice chorus to the Loop. That was in 1909.
Active in Politics Mrs. Barnett was always active in polities. She helped marshal the women behind every effort of the men to gain public office in Chicago. She was militant in everything she undertook.
As late as 1930 she was in politics running for the nomination for state senator against Warren B. Douglas and A. H. Roberts.
In 1895 she was married to Hon. F. L. Barnett, one of the foremost citizens Chicago has ever had, and who survives her. Four children and four grandchildren survive Mrs. Barnett. They are Charles Aked and Herman K. Barnett and Miss Ida and Mrs. Alfreda Barnett Duster, all of Chicago. The grandchildren are Gloria Barnett and Herman K. Barnett Jr., and Benjamin Duster Jr. and Charles A. Buster. There are also two sisters and two brothers surviving. They are Mrs. Lillian Daniels of Berkeley, Cal., and Mrs. Anna W. Fitts of Chicago, George W. and A. J. Wells of Los Angeles.
Funeral services will be held Monday at 1 o'clock from the Metropolitan Community church, 41st St., and South Pkwy, with the Rev. Joseph M. Evans in charge. Recently the Barnett home has been at 248 E. Garfield Blvd.
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